Results of the research report

A research report concerning financial and environmental impacts of the dry port solutions were accomplished by Lappeenranta University of Technology, Kouvola Research Unit. The results of the report are summarized at this page. The research report can be found here.

Main results of the study are that by using dry ports it is possible to create transportation more more financial and environmental. Reason for that is mainly because rail transport is more inexpensive mode of transport than road transport according to cost accounting with Finnish parameters. In addition, rail transport is conciderable friendlier mode of transport than road transport in terms of environment. Parameter values of cost accounting are based on various sources, mainly different Finnish transport agencies. All the used references can be found from the research report. Results from cost accounting between rail and road transport are summarized in Table 1 below.

Table 1. Different costs of road and rail transport per ton-kilometers.

Variable costs are basic costs that concider e.g. salary and fuel costs. Fixed costs are based on different costs that will not change if utilization rate increases of decreases. Fixed costs are e.g. capital costs. External costs in the research report counts as environmental costs. These costs in the research report are based on four different external costs, and they are CO2 emissions, congestion, noise and accidents. As can be seen from Table 1, rail transport is overall more inexpensive mode of transport than road transport. Road transport is (with Finnish parameter values) approximately 84 percent more expensive mode of transport. Large focus of the research report was about environmental impacts of a dry port. The difference in external costs between road and rail transport is significant. According to the research report, rail transport is circa 10 times less expensive in terms of environmental impacts. It means that by implementing dry port the external costs of the whole intermodal transportation can be decreased considerable. Figure 1 below illustrates distribution of variable, fixed and external costs of road and rail transport.

Figure 1. Distibution of variable, fixed and external costs of road and rail transport.

It can be seen from Figure 1 that variable costs are the main costs of the whole costs of road transport. Variable costs of road transport are almost 63 percent. Fixed costs are 23.5 percent and external costs are almost 14 percent. Main difference between road and rail transport are that external costs of the whole rail transport are only 2.5 percent. It is clearly better way of transporting freight, if environmental aspects are important. More specific explanation of the internal and external costs of road and rail transport can be seen in the full research report in the Reports section.

Simulation model

Agent-based simulation model was used to research how the costs of transportation evolve by using dry port solutions. Simulation model consists of two different scenarios. First one uses dry port solution so that between seaport and dry port there is a rail connection. All the freight between seaport and dry port are transported by rail. Only the final leg of the transportation is accomplished by road. Second scenario uses only traditional road transport i.e. only trucks transport freight.

Results of the simulation model are that dry port port implemented transport is environmentally friendlier mode of transport than conventional road transport. In addition, the total costs of dry port implemented transport are less than the same costs for traditional road transport. More spesific report of the results of simulation model can be found in the full research report in the Reports section. The simulation model can be tried at the Simulation section.

Gravitational models

Gravitational models were used to study the location of Kouvola as a dry port implementation. The results are that Kouvola is in relatively good location to be a dry port for Finnish inland distribution. Kouvola was compared with cities of Kotka and Helsinki. Helsinki is in the most optimal location for Finnish inland distribution, while city of Kotka is in the worst position. If transit traffic is taken into account, then city of Kouvola improves its position considerable if compared to Helsinki. More specific results of the gravitational models can be seen in the full research report in the Reports section.